by JD Franx
They were standing in the courtyard of Giddeon’s mansion in Corynth, a distance of six days’ ride.
“Ember!” Max shouted, turning to see her and all the members of their group, but no pirates. The phantom wings faded into nothing, her hair fell flat and lifeless, while her skin paled to an alabaster white. Her eyes, dulled and shot through with red, bled onto her cheeks.
“I, I’m… sorry, Max. It’s the only safe place I knew to g…” Ember looked at him and fell to the ground, unconscious. Yrlissa, only two feet short of catching her, instead slid to her left side. She felt her neck for a pulse as Max dropped to his knees on Ember’s right.
Terrified, Yrlissa’s voice broke as she glanced at Max. “No! Her heart stopped, Max, she’s gone. The jump was too much for how exhausted she was. She used her life force to jump us here.”
“She can’t be,” he said, pulling his knife. He cut her shirt from top to bottom and then spread it wide, bearing her chest.
Yrlissa grabbed his arm, squeezing viciously. “What the hell do you think you are doing?” The raw sorrow in his eyes made her pause, but she refused to let go of his arm.
“Trust me,” he said, and with a nod she let go. Max placed his right ear to Ember’s bare chest as gently as he could. Listening for only a few seconds, his elation was overwhelming. “Oh, thank god, Ember. Come on girl, don’t give up yet.” Looking at Yrlissa, he spoke almost too fast for her to follow. “You need to listen closely. We have little time. Her heart hasn’t stopped, but it’s irregular and weak. I can hear it. It’s not pumping any blood though. I’m going to compress her chest like so…” he said, and began CPR on the girl he loved like a sister.
“Can you send a bolt of electricity from one hand to the other, through her body?” he asked, continuing to compress Ember’s chest.
Yrlissa looked at him as if he were insane, unsure of what he meant. “How powerful a shock? Where would I do it?” she asked, sounding unsure.
“I honestly have no idea. We have machines for this back home. It needs to be strong enough to stop her heart so that the rhythm will reset itself. Send the current from your left hand to your right through her body. I’ll show you where, then do it as soon as I’m clear. If it’s not right, she’ll die anyway. Understand?” he said, sternly. Too confused to speak, the Elvehn assassin nodded as he stopped the compressions and again placed his ear to Ember’s bare chest.
Hearing that her heart was still in arrhythmia, he barked, “Now, here and here.” He pointed to above her right breast first and to the left and below her heart. “Now!” he yelled, as Yrlissa placed her hands where Max showed her.
She whispered a quick prayer to the goddess of magic for help. “Please, Lady Inara, guide my power. Rikr Kveysa.”
She spoke the spell with a light, but firm tongue and a spark lit up with a loud pop underneath her left hand before another snapped below her right a split second later as the current moved through Ember’s body. The response was instantaneous. The magical lightning reset her heart’s natural rhythm and Ember lurched up, puking all over Yrlissa. Max grabbed her and slowly laid her back, talking to her to keep her calm.
“It’s all right, Ember. It’s gonna be okay. You’re back with us. Breathe easy and try to stay calm. You did good, girl. Jesus in heaven, thank God. I knew you wouldn’t give up.” His voice was warm and caring, and she smiled at him.
“We made it, Max?” she asked, as she lost consciousness again. He laughed with relief.
“Yeah, we made it, thanks to you.” Looking at Yrlissa, he laughed again. “You saved her life. She wouldn’t have made it without the shock.”
Still beyond confused at what happened, the assassin shook her head. “What did we just do, Max? Anyone else would have died. They have died, always. I’ve seen it. Using too much magic drains your life force and stops the heart.”
Max shook his head, “No, it wasn’t stopped. It only seemed like her heart stopped. We call it arrhythmia where I come from. The heart doesn’t pump blood when it’s like that, so you can’t really feel a pulse, but it’s still beating, just irregularly, or humming sometimes. A jolt of electricity will sometimes reset the heart’s normal rhythm and makes the heart pump blood again. Luck played a big part here, as well. Back home everything is done with machines and monitors so we don’t have to guess like we did now.”
“This is incredible, Max. It could save countless lives here, especially young ones. It is always the vigour of youth that pushes too hard. Thank you for showing me.”
Giddeon watched with an intense stare as Max and Yrlissa brought Ember back from death. His eyebrows remained in a frown as he finally spoke. “You have done something truly incredible, Max. Such a thing will save several young lives at the Eye every year. Foolish students are always pushing their limits like Yrlissa said. Thank you doesn’t begin to say what this means. We will have to explore it further, immediately.”
“I hope it helps Giddeon, I really do, but understand this could’ve been more luck than anything else,” Max warned.
“If it is just a blessing of the Lady Lykke, then perhaps she will bless at least one student at the Eye with the same. One single life will make it worth the effort of finding out. If this wasn’t the goddess of luck then maybe many lives will be saved every year. It is more than we had yesterday and that can only be a good thing, my friend,” Giddeon said, as he grasped Max’s shoulder.
Saleece and Kasik followed the ArchWizard as they headed to the house to make arrangements for Ember.
Yrlissa refused to leave, so she pulled her hood up and raised her mask to cover her face. They were back in Corynth, a very dangerous place for her to be. There were guild and pirate spies in every port and city throughout Talohna. Someone could be watching at any given time. The pirates would never tell Yrlissa’s guild about her being alive; keeping her survival a secret meant that they would have a better chance of catching her alive for themselves. The Suns of Blood were very serious when it came to vengeance. No one more so than Dominique Havarrow and his crew of Reavers.
Max stayed with her and Ember and listened to the steady beat of her heart for a full thirty minutes before he would allow her to be moved. Yrlissa did the best she could to restore some of Ember’s strength by trickling magic into her body before they helped carry her to Giddeon’s mansion and into a comfortable bed. Yrlissa and Max both stayed by her side.
Once they knew she was comfortable and had what she needed, Giddeon and Saleece rushed over to the Eye, excited to inform the Wizard Council of the life-saving discovery.
ELVENAI MOUNTAIN PASS, TA'CERYSS
The explosive blast of energy expelled by Ember’s body caught all the pirates off guard. On pure instinct, Talvira threw up her hands to protect herself from the bright magic, muttering a quick prayer.
“Gods, please help me!” A see-through dome of blue magic shimmered to life. Every pirate was knocked to the ground by the concussive wave of energy. Those closest to the detonation were send flying through the air. Several fell lifeless after colliding with trees or mountain rock. Bauro, Dominique, and the sorceress Talvira, were the only ones to keep their feet. The magical shield enveloped them and the explosion washed over, leaving them unharmed. As the effects died away, the shield dropped.
“Thank you, my dear,” Bauro said, bowing to his sorceress. Confused and drained physically, she nodded. Puzzled as to how the shield sprang from her magic without a connection to the earth, she offered nothing else. Furious at being so exhausted, she refused to look like a weakling.
“Well,” Dominique scoffed, “Can’t say I’ve seen that shit before.”
Bauro nodded his agreement. “Definitely a fuckin’ first. Talvira? What the fuck was that?”
Puzzled, she shrugged her shoulders. “I... ahem, I, I’m not sure,” the sorceress answered, finding her voice. “Are they dead or gone?” Approaching the blast site, Dominique knelt in the dirt and examined the area.
“No blood or body parts, but
the rock is fused smooth, almost like obsidian after those bastard Orotaq have worked it. I’d say they’re gone.” Glancing over his shoulder at Bauro, he added, “What the fuck kinda magic is this?”
Again, Bauro turned to Talvira. “Well?”
Shaking her head in disbelief, Talvira cursed quietly as the answer dawned on her. “Damn the gods. It... It had to be a realm-jump... The fuckin’ redhead!” she said, raw hatred dripping from every word. “It had to be the redhead.”
“What about her, woman?” Bauro barked.
Still shaking her head, her face a blank slate of incredulity, the sorceress growled, “A Fae! The redhead has to be Fae. There’s no other explanation, the energy came from her.” A sly smirk slid onto Bauro’s lips as he turned back to his right hand man. Talivira knew instantly what he was thinking. Her smile automatically mimicked his own.
“When we leave the Viel, sail ta Forja Vehlo. Find at least six ships. If their captains won’t leave with you immediately, relieve them of their command and place men loyal to you at the helms. Any ship you have to re-helm, train them for the Reaver flag.”
“Not a problem. Then?”
“Sail to Ellorya. Find out what you can ‘bout those rumours we’ve been hearing ‘bout that crazy alchemist. We may need an explosive genius if we’re to capture a living Fae.” He laughed as he scratched at his beard.
Dominique snorted, chuckling. “Imagine what Emperor Mero would pay for a living embodiment of their god.” The Suns of Blood’s second in command continued laughing as he turned to go help some his men back to their feet.
“Dom?” Bauro yelled after him.
“Aye, Captain?”
“Do not return to Rejtett Island without the madman or his recipe. Both’d be better.”
“What if the rumours are bullshit?”
Bauro spit in the grass at his feet. “Then kill the crazy prick for wasting my fuckin’ time. I gotta a Fae to find and a country to ransom her to.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Those who have given their souls to the darkest of evil will never understand the actions of those who are pure of heart. Darkness can grow in the heart and soul of any man, woman, or child. Only those who are strong enough to fight it every day will know the sincere happiness of a life well lived.
But what about those who can’t? To lose the fight to keep the darkness from your soul happens slowly. A little at a time, the need for power or revenge, greed or lust, grows until fighting it matters less and less every day and soon it matters not at all. The soul, once bright with the hope of happiness, twists and begins to decay into the darkened spectre that inhabits the most sadistic and evil beings that have ever existed.
I know this as fact, for I have seen it in the eyes of my captors, but worse, I understand it, because that same darkness exists within me. I fear what will happen when I no longer care enough to worry. When this happens the darkest and most powerful magic awakens. Magic they want me to wield. Magic that might very well turn against them should even the smallest bit of my own consciousness remain alive. The magic of the DeathWizard.
JOURNAL ENTRY FOUND IN
THE AGELESS LIBRARY’S CATACOMBS,
DRAE’KAHN, DORMASAI.
DATE AND AUTHOR UNKNOWN.
ITS POWERFUL PRESERVATION SPELL IS
DATED PRIOR TO THE GREAT CATACLYSM.
ARKUM ZUL, TAZAMMOR MOUNTAIN
Deep underneath the towering peaks of the majestic Tazammor Mountain range, time crawled by for the remaining captives held in the cell with Kael. For Kael himself, it was day after endless day of constant pain and suffering as his body struggled to heal from the vile magic given to Arabella by the hand of the Lower Brethren’s most powerful demon lord. It hadn’t taken that long, but he now understood why these sadistic, corrupt women went by the name they did. The Dead Sisters revelled in the misery that was suffering and death, all while being incapable of empathy or remorse.
Every day, Kael and his cell-mates watched as more bodies were carried past them to the balcony at the far end of the cells. With Kael incapacitated, it seemed that Arabella had turned her ire and wrath on the other helpless prisoners; it was more guilt that landed on his shoulders. The days turned to weeks and the weeks closed in on a month and still bodies were dragged by, often several times during a single day to be dumped into a deep pit as if they were little more than refuse. Kael tried not to think about how Lycori and Gabriel had been tossed down there as well. After so much activity, the cells around them had been empty for weeks; the rest of the cells on their prison level had been empty for days, but the cries and screams from the other levels continued as the influx of prisoners never ceased.
Instead, Kael focused on the one good thing to come from the suffering they had all endured, himself in particular. His magic had returned at a much faster pace than before. If all went well, he hoped to break the Gyhhura collar and attempt an escape in a matter of days. N’Ikyah had been working with a steady determination, trying to understand how to help him access his underworld magic on command. With the events from the day of Lycori’s death swirling inside his head, Kael was positive that the magical collar would be the least concerning part of their escape.
N’Ikyah’s earlier estimate of when Arabella would return was accurate. Galen informed them when they woke that the month had passed, thirty-one days since the witch’s rage-filled attack. Arabella and her entourage could be heard approaching after the day’s first of two meals had been brought to them. The second meal had been re-instated a month prior as a way to help Kael heal at a greater pace. N’Ikyah’s sister slaves brought the first around midday. Arabella’s group followed not long after the prisoners had finished eating. Her squad of Orotaq guards marched into the cells and secured them. No one even bothered to fight any longer. With the guards’ superior strength and numbers it left the prisoners with no chance at escape anyway. Kael, N’Ikyah, and Galen were the only ones to have survived Arabella’s earlier rampage and they’d been alone in the cell since. Now they were the only ones left alive on their floor of the prison.
Entering the cell after the Orotaq, Arabella wasted no time, heading straight for Kael. “You seem to have healed exceptionally well. Shall we test how well?” she sneered.
“What?” he replied, rudely. “Don’t you even want to ask if I’ve changed my mind yet? Just straight to the torture is it? And here I was hoping for a little foreplay.” Heavy sarcasm dripped from Kael’s mouth like drool, but his comment only made her laugh.
“Ha! You must be feeling better if that useless sense of humour has returned.” She leaned closer until her nose was touched his. “If I were a few years younger, Kael, I would enjoy you eating those very words. But perhaps Ashea can give you some foreplay before the real fun begins. What do you say?” she whispered, as a sick smile played across her face.
Realizing that his sarcasm backfired in more ways than one, Kael felt a strong urge to try to do everything he could to avoid being used as a plaything by a young girl who shouldn’t be smiling at such a prospect.
“Nah, that’s okay, Arabella,” he said. “She’s a decade too young and you’re a decade’s worth of decades too old, and seeing as I’ve yet to figure out if Darthinia is a man, a beast, or possibly a woman, I think I’ll just pass all together. Thank you for the offer though,” he said, sarcasm returning once more.
The witch laughed at his backpedalling. “Perhaps I should force the issue then, Kael. Ashea would love the opportunity to prove herself to the coven. With a chance like this she may even pass on to her apprentice standing—perhaps even to mother of a new DeathWizard.” Kael could see where the situation was going to go and knew that there was only one way to stop it, hoping she wouldn’t kill him for it. Using every bit of strength he had, he slammed his forehead straight into her smiling mouth. Blood sprayed from her shattered nose and split lips all across the front of the tattered threads of Kael’s shirt. He groaned from the after-effects of the collar scraping the nerves
inside his neck. It was quickly replaced by a chuckle as Arabella’s scream of surprise reached his ears. It lasted only seconds as she back handed him with strength that was shocking in its power.
“You insolent bastard,” she cursed, spitting a mouth full of blood onto the floor at Kael’s feet. “I’ve had enough of your cowardly, time-wasting delays. You will suffer non-stop until you submit or until your body gives out and you die.”
“Finally,” Kael sighed. “It took you long enough, ugly. Get it over with.”
“As you wish. The last touch of raw demon magic you felt was nothing, Kael. The strangest and cruelest magic comes from the demon realms. Today you’ll find out why,” she hissed. Looking back over her shoulder, she reached out with her hand. Darthinia passed her a strange looking object and Arabella held it in front of his face so Kael could could get a good look at it.
Shaped like the symbol used for infinity, it was made from what looked like cooled molten lava. The inside edge was lined in four-inch-long teeth. A squeaky hinge was located in the middle. Like the rest of the device, including the teeth, the porous surface was pocked with holes from when the molten material had cooled. Kael winced in fear and was positive he turned pale white.
“You see, Kael? I no longer care whether you live or die, but I will enjoy watching your last hours of agony. Retha, the demon queen of suffering gave me three of these lovely little devices, just for you.” With words that Kael was so familiar with, but still didn’t understand, Arabella whispered over the device. The teeth grew in length and expanded as if they had a life of their own and a putrid green ooze bled from the holes that covered the entire surface. Pale green, vaporous smoke hissed as it rose from the slime. Kael knew immediately this addition was the witch’s magic. Another few words and the spikes returned to normal while the magical sludge evaporated. As he stared, trembling, Arabella gave him a coy smile and flipped the wicked looking contraption forward. It stuck to Kael’s chest for a second before the outside teeth dug in behind his pectoral muscles and like something alive, sucked the rest flat to his upper body.
